Sunday, July 16, 2023
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Our hearts and thoughts are with you as you honor, remember and celebrate the life of your beloved.mother, Joanna and Lianna. As you also mourn her loss with sadness, may you be comforted by memories of her. Although she may no longer walk the earth with us, she will be forever in your thoughts and hearts. She will always be a part of you, for she raised you with deep and abiding love that survives death.
Your mom was a very special person in my life. Two very shy girls,, each very much in need of a close friend, found each other on our middle school playground one day. We both kept deferring to the other as to what to do that day, until it finally became a very silly game of finding different ways to ask the same question: "What do YOU want to do?" We had created our own mutually entertaining and satisfying activity with this silly game as we formed a bond of friendship that grew stronger over the course of middle school and high school.
We spoke on the phone for HOURS every night!!!!! Vicki gave me the nickname of "Patty Petunia", so I gave her the nickname of "Viccalo the Piccalo,." We had fun teasing each other! Both "A" students at South Hills High, West Covina, CA, we were members of CSF (California Scholarship Federation). We also became members of the CIVITANS girls' service club, which served not only our school, but also the community, helping to support a school for mentally retarded children, etc. The photo I posted of Vicki in this Tribute Book was taken when she was a 17 year old Junior, to recognize her as the Treasurer of the Civitans. She looks so happy and confident in that photo! At the end of that year Vicki was accepted into a program at USC where she could complete her Senior HS year while enrolled as a college freshman. That was quite an accomplishment, and I was very proud of her! She came a long way from that shy girl I met in middle school! Although eligible, my parents would not allow me to pursue that path, so Vicki and I sadly had to part ways.
Joanna and Lianna, you have done such a beautiful job detailing all your mom's outstanding qualities as a devoted and loving family person and an accomplished professional! Thanks so much for giving me the opportunity to share my memories of Vicki in her pre-college days. When Vicki and I reconnected many years later in New York, we created many more fond memories as my family and I joined your family on holidays and special occasions. After that phase of our lives, I absolutely loved when Vicki would travel into Manhattan so she and I could spend long afternoons going to museums or sitting on the lakes of Central Park feeding the ducks. With me and people she met during these excursions she always found some special way to make others happy, like doting on someone's dog they were walking, or surprising me with some special sweet treat. Vicki has always, and will always, continue to have a very special place in my heart. I will always love her.
